Guard Down
by Strate
Summary: He was the only one she ever let her guard down in front of, because she took him for granted. How ironic it is that she would end up falling for him. TailsXRouge Fluff. One-shot.


**A/N: Okay, so I decided to make a little One-Shot before starting the sequel to Unexpected Encounters, just to sharpen my writing a little. But don't worry, that fic's gonna be coming up really soon. So anyways, hope you enjoy this. It's a little Tailouge fluff because there's not enough of it, and I made it in Rouge's POV to see if I could handle using different POVs. By the way, a minor character from the Archie Sonic Comics makes a cameo in here, just because I found him to be a very fun little thing.**

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I shouldn't have let my guard down.

I did, and now I'm stuck in this cell.

A few hours ago, things were like usual. Eggman was at it again, and we were all ready to stop him. He got all the Chaos Emeralds and used them on another of his so-called 'death machines'. The Egg Golem, he called it. I wonder how many of those he's made up to this day. I don't even know how he manages to get his hands on the emeralds all the time. That bastard makes my job look easy.

We were all fighting his giant robot on Seaside Lake. Each one of us had their own job. Sonic and Knuckles were supposed to stay in the front and distract the fire, Shadow had to strike it from behind to make It lose balance and leave it vulnerable to all our attacks, and Tails and I had to fly above it and try to break the tons of weapons it had on top of it. Cannons, lasers, rocket launchers… that thing was armed to the teeth.

I noticed that the Egg Golem was much stronger than Eggman's other machines. Sonic kept bouncing off the front like it was made of rubber, Shadow couldn't even make it tumble, heck, even Knuckles couldn't make a scratch on it. So I tried to at least buy us some time to figure out a weakness. I went for the left laser that was aiming at Sonic.

It took some force, but I managed to break it and come out without being harmed. Unfortunately, me breaking the laser caught Eggman's attention, but that attention went to Tails instead, who was still struggling against the cannons on the right. Before he knew it, the laser alongside the cannon had aimed at him and hit him directly in the chest.

At the very moment the laser made impact, I felt as if it had hit me instead. He got sent backwards, still managing to stay on the air. But the laser was charging up for another strike, and I knew that he wouldn't make it if it hit the same wound again. No one else would be able to reach him in time except me. I suddenly felt panicked, as if I was about to lose something extremely important to me. And, looking back, it was probably true.

I don't know when I got so fond of the little fox, but the truth is that I did. Actually, to be honest, I _know_ when I got fond of him, but I try to deny it, because I feel that it was weak and stupid of my part.

I remember those days pretty clearly. It was no more than a few months ago. I was searching for something to do. No new missions, no big jewels worthy of my attention, no Eggman attack… I was bored. Then I saw a familiar little fox on his house, working on his plane. Sure, I'll go check out what Tails is doing, I mean…

…_What could possibly be the harm?_ It was thoughts like that which made me end up here.

So of course, he was surprised by me visiting him. I said 'hi' to him like I always do, with a kiss on the cheek. I thought it was just a harmless way of teasing and playing around with him, and I loved seeing him blush. He was… cute.

I asked him what he was doing, and he just told me he was trying to make his little plane work even better. He probably thought I would get bored if he told me all the details, and to be honest, I probably would have.

I offered to help him. I think I took him by surprise with that, but he agreed. So I started working with him, I mean, I didn't have anything better to do, so why not help the little guy for a bit?

The work itself was surprisingly pretty fun. I got to see him hover around the plane and spin tools around his hands quicker than I ever imagined he could. I also got to meet his little pet-robot. T-pup, was it? Yeah. He was as cute as his owner.

"_It's done! Thank you, Rouge. Hey, do you want to come test it out with me?"_ He said with that sweet, innocent smile of his. I said yes. _What could possibly be the harm, right?_

So we flew for a couple of minutes in his modified plane. It was fast, much faster than the last time I saw it and much faster than what I expected it to be. When we went too fast, I involuntarily reached for the closest thing to get a hold of. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I'm not sure anymore, that always happened to be Tails. But for some reason, he seemed to be _amused_ by that.

When our little ride was over, I decided it was time to leave. Maybe I would go home and sleep a bit earlier than usual. But before I left, Tails came up to me.

"_Thank you for helping me out, Rouge."_ He said before lifting himself up in the air with his two tails like only he could, and kissing me on the cheek.

For some reason, it felt extremely strange. I used to do that a lot to him, but that was the first time he'd done that to me. And that sudden tingling in my body when he did that… Was that how he always felt like when I kissed him?

I shook off those thoughts from my mind. What was I thinking? It must have been the aftershock of the plane's speed. Yeah. That's it.

"_Can I do something to return the favor to you?"_ Argh…There it was again. That innocent smile on his face as he said that…I can't even say no to him.

So I saw him again the next day. And the day after that. And the one after that. It turned into weeks. And each day I got more and more fond of him, letting my guard down a little more every day.

I would go see him; he would take me out to a different place every day…I guess you could say we were dating, although I doubt he even noticed that. Or perhaps…we've been dating for weeks and I'm the one who never noticed? I don't know anymore.

It was my fault that this happened. My fault that I'm now stuck in this place. I took him for granted, because he was harmless, sweet, and innocent. That's why I didn't feel the need to be careful around him. And that's why I ended up throwing myself into danger for him.

I trailed off, didn't I? Where was I again? Oh yeah, the battle with Eggman. The laser was charging and looked almost ready to fire, with Tails locked on its sights while he held his chest in pain from the other hit. And then I did something really stupid.

I flew right in the way. I don't know what the heck I was thinking, but next thing I know, a giant pain is coursing through all my body. I think it had hit me on the base of my spine. I started falling down, my body feeling numb. Something caught me. It was a cold, hard surface. It gripped me like a giant hand, and then I realized that it _was_ a giant hand. It threw me into a container. How original. Then I passed out. That laser was pretty damn strong.

I woke up on this cold steel floor, in this dark cell on one of Eggman's fortresses located who knows where. What does he even want with me? Is he trying to use me as bait for someone to come rescue me? Or does he just want me to stay out of the way? Or maybe… maybe he'll offer me to join him…? To tell the truth, if he did, I probably would accept. I don't have any other option, okay?! I just want to get out of here.

And when I do, I'll never, _ever_ let my guard down again.

I slump down into the floor. Now all I can do is wait. This cell is completely empty. There's no lock on the door, so I'm guessing it's computer-operated. There are no holes or anything I can squeeze through, and the floor and walls are made of steel, so I can't claw my way out. I'm stuck here.

I'm waiting. Waiting for something. A sound, a movement, someone opening the door, whoever. Be It Eggman or one of his robots, I don't care. This is driving me nuts. This place is empty, there's barely any light, and the silence is killing me. Apart from the sound of explosions in the background, there is not a single sound.

…

…_Explosions_? Yeah, those are explosions! Something's going on out there!

I can't see anything out of my cell, but thankfully it's not soundproof. I can hear an alarm going off, guns firing, and more explosions. What's happening?! The explosions start sounding closer to me, so I back off into the other side of the cell, just in case.

And soon enough, the ground shakes and the door collapses in front of me, letting a cloud of smoke in.

I cough a little and the smoke blurs my vision for a moment. After the smoke finally vanishes and my eyes adjust to the light outside, I look out of the door to see what had just happened.

Crushed robots, broken metal parts lying on the floor, fire and smoke on the distance, and most importantly, a big plane stationed right in front of my door.

The hatch opens and I instantly felt my heart going faster. Tails walked out of it. He came back to rescue me! He was covered in dust and he had a few scratches on him, as well as the mark from the laser that had hit him. When he saw me, he started running towards me, and before I knew it, he had wrapped his arms around me. I'm sitting on the floor, so I'm at eye level with him.

"Rouge! I was so worried about you…" He was…worried? About me?

"I…I thought that something bad had happened to you…" He says. And after those words left his mouth, I heard a faint sob. I pull back and look at him. He's on the verge of tears. I can't stand seeing him like that. I hug him tighter.

"Don't worry…I'm alright…Y-you really came back to help me…" I whisper. I still can't believe it.

"Of course I did…I would never leave you alone…" I feel so good when I hear those words…I just believe him without even doubting him. I really do trust him.

"I'm so glad you're alright, Rouge. I-it was my fault! If I would've been more careful, y-you wouldn't have-" I stop him right there. I don't need to hear that, and he doesn't need to say it. So I silence him with the only thing I want from him right now: A kiss.

I'm being impulsive and I know that perfectly. But I just can't hold it in anymore. And I don't want to, either. I guess…I finally came to accept my feelings. And Tails seems to accept them too. He's…kissing me back.

After that brief moment of heaven is over, I look at him, slightly afraid of what he's going to say.

"I…didn't mean to do that…" That's the best I could come up with. He's going to get really angry at me, I just know it…

"I'm glad you did." He says as he pulls me closer into a hug, and, eventually, another kiss. Now it _really_ is heaven for me.

Once our second kiss is over, he grabs my hand and stands up, smiling.

"Let's get out of this place! We have to go back and help the others!" He says while pulling me up and leading me towards the plane. "We'll…talk about this later." He adds while blushing. That always makes me smile.

I enter the plane with him. He quickly starts it up back again while I look around the fortress. The place is in ruins. All the robots, cannons and weapons are destroyed. He did this all by himself. And he did it…for me.

The plane starts moving and quickly accelerates. This time, I won't have a problem with the increased speed…

I'm clinging on to Tails tightly. His fur…it's so soft…so warm…Wow, I can't believe I'm thinking like this. I guess I'll get used to it. I can see the Egg Golem from the window. It's tumbling backwards, and it looks like it's about to fall down. It seems that we're actually winning this battle!

I snuggle closer to Tails, and he smiles at me. I've never felt so happy before. Maybe…letting my guard down wasn't so bad after all.

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**THE END**


End file.
